FNB - Dont fall in arrears with your FNB homeloan - Bully Boys in the Home Loan Business

My wife and I have been without full time jobs for the past two and a half years. During the time of our unemployment we fell into arrears for approximately R85 000.00 with our FNB bond. We took on whatever temporary employment we could get and begged and borrowed and finally brought our payments up to date by about May 2017. Shortly after this we realised that our bond repayment had been increased from R 13 000.00 to R17 000.00. When we enquired about this increase we were told that the increase was repayment of legal costs. At no time were we notified by the bank or their attorneys what the legal fees were or that it will be added onto our bond. We requested this information and we were absolutely shocked to receive invoices totalling +R141 000.00 in legal fees. We send a correspondence to the attorneys asking that these invoices be 'taxed'. We were informed by them on 20 October 2017 that the fees will be taxed and they will revert to us shortly thereafter. It is about 5 months and we have received no feedback regarding our request. During this time we fell into arrears again because of our employment situation for the amount of +R67 000.00. Five months ago I began some temporary work where I am currently still employed. We have reduced the arears to about R26 000.00.

We owe about 2 instalments and yet we still receive threatening emails from FNB even though we make regular payments. Its understandable if it was a large sum but for this It seems terribly unfair.

Their slogan of "how can we help you" seems a bit hollow to us.

How can they expect their customers that fall into difficulty to come out of it if they are irresponsible enough to allow their attorneys to charge such exorbitant fees and create further difficulty for their customers? It will be interesting to see the feedback that from other FNB home loan customers that find themselves in this situation.